The Hon. Jagath Manuwarna

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, though we are to speak on two Extraordinary Gazettes and the related motion and notification, I must address the Opposition’s lamentations. Their weeping has turned into a funeral dirge. Best wishes to their newly consolidated identity—“the Opposition,” perhaps better termed the “Permanent Opposition,” with Hon. Ranil Wickremesinghe as its true leader, as one of their own just admitted.

¶ 02 On salt: people do not consume salt like rice. The Opposition, having run out of substance, tries to inflate small supply hiccups into national crises. On local polls: they keep claiming they will form the CMC; we ask, who is your Mayor? Ours is Vraye Kelly Balthazar. We will establish majorities in a majority of councils nationwide.

¶ 03 Hon. Chamindrani Kirielle asked me about Hewahata—there too, we will form the board. The people’s mandate in local polls is clear: grant us the chance to form administrations.

¶ 04 On the recent war commemoration: to the Opposition Leader who spoke, I ask—did you at least light a lamp for the fallen? Those who died were the sons and daughters of our villages; many now live disabled. Every village cemetery holds the graves of those who sacrificed. Remember them in deeds, not only in words.